RAG Vol 6 Issue 4

Roman Archaeology Group Inc Volume 6, Issue 4 December, 2011 The RAG London — IN THIS ISSUE Beginnings in Forced Labour and Murder? 2—5 With London hosting the 30th Olympiad in fect bisecting the settlement, see map above) Carsulae: a Roman July/August 2012 there is an increased interest and on into the River Thames at what is now Town in Umbria, in the origins of the city. Dowgate. Italy The city of London is made up of 25 wards, The traditional theory is that in approximately one of which is called ‗the Ward of Walbrook‘. AD 50, some seven years after the Roman in- Walbrook Street in the Ward of Walbrook fol- vasion of AD 43, Londinium was established Norah Cooper lows the course of what was a river on the sur- by the Romans as a mercantile centre. There face, the River Walbrook, but which is today had probably not been a pre-Roman settlement, one of many ‗lost‘ rivers of London, rivers despite the rich pre-Roman history alleged for now running entirely underground. the place by Geoffrey of Monmouth. About ten The Romans in 6—7 years after its initial foundation Londinium was America destroyed by Queen Boudicca's Iceni tribesmen. The speculation now is that Londinium was David Kennedy founded as a military base, its reconstruction facilitated by slave labour whose reward for service was decapitation, the heads consigned to the River Walbank. The archaeologist Domi- nic Perring, of University College London, Rome, Mining and 8—11 thinks the slave force may have been Queen Western Anatolia Boudicca's captured Iceni tribesmen (see this month‘s British Archaeology). Thus, the skulls were defleshed and were mainly of young men, facts suggesting execution. Moreover, the re- Graham Sylvester In the 1860s some hundreds of skulls construction evidences the use not of Roman (examples pictured opposite), but almost no carpentry but of traditional or native wood- other skeletal remains, were found along the working, suggesting the use of native labour. course of the River Walbrook. An early theory for the origin of the skulls was that they repre- sented the decapitated remains of defeated Museum of London military force, rather as the 12th century ‗historian‘ Geoffrey of Monmouth had reported in his Historia Regnum Britanniae (‗History of the Kings of Britain‘) the casting into the River Gallobroc of the heads of a defeated legion of Roman soldiers who had been besieged in Lon- don by the legendary king of Britain, Julius Asclepiodotus. However, more recent excava- tion and reflection suggests that the skulls may point to the origins of London in forced labour and wholesale murder. And the fact that there is no evidence of the Hence, the River Walbrook in the Ward of construction of temples or civic buildings sug- University of Virginia, Pan- Walbrook is located at the centre of the place gests that the site was not for civic use. It may theon recalled — page 7 where London was founded. The River rising thus be that London began as a military estab- at what is today Finsbury, flowed through the lishment and was perhaps the command centre centre of the walled-city of Londinium (in ef- for the whole of Roman Britain. Ed. Page 2 The RAG Carsulae: a Roman Town in Umbria, Italy Norah Cooper Anyone who has experienced the pleasures of going round the wonderful ruins of Ostia Antica just near Rome, would also love Carsulae in Umbria, a little gem of a ruined Roman town. It lies just 100 km north of Rome but in the mountains east of the main highway to Florence. The result is that it has few visitors. A great pity as it is like a miniature Ostia Antica and located in a beau- tiful, scenic area. It gets a mention in Tacitus writing about Vespasian‘s general Marcus Antonius Primus, who in the civil war of AD 69 camped there on his march to Rome: ―On arriving at Carsulae, the leaders of the Flavian party rested a few days and waited for the eagles and standards of the legions to come up. They also regarded with favour the actual situation of their camp, which had a wide outlook, and secured their supply of stores, because of the prosperous towns behind them…..‖ (Historiae, III, 60). The Carsulae area (circled in map below) had settlements from the mid Bronze Age (15th century BC) to the 5th century BC; these settlements tended to be positioned on high ground. From the 4th century BC there were intrusions by the aggressive and expanding little Roman state further south and in the 1st century BC the region‘s inhabitants became ‗Roman‘ and registered as citizens in the Clustumina tribe. The building of the Via Flaminia (see map below) from Rome to Rimini (Arminum) by Gaius Flaminius (during his censorship 220 BC) opened up the region and soon gave rise to a new town – Carsulae, located on the highway and beside natural springs. The Via Flaminia was built to move troops quickly into conquered territory. It‘s building was crucial to the development of Carsulae, which became a way-station for the transporta- tion not only of armies but of goods and people to and from the sea port at Ariminum on the Adriatic coast and for wheat from the Po Valley to Rome and central Italy. The Via Flaminia di- vides into two branches at Narnia; the oldest eastern branch went to Spoleto (Spoletium) and the shorter western branch (Carsulae- Mevania) became the preferred route from the 1st century BC to Late Antiquity. The Via Flaminia entered Carsulae from the south and left through San Damiano‘s Arch, to the north. (See Google im- age below of Carsulae area). Carsulae was a municipium by the time of Au- gustus and most of the public buildings which still survive are from the Augustan period, ar- ranged around the forum and along Via Flaminia, which formed the cardo maximus of the settlement. The town consists of the usual Roman public buildings: a forum with temples and busi- nesses, a basilica, a theatre, an amphitheatre and thermal baths. Today, you enter Carsulae from the southeast through a small museum. As you walk north along the Via Flaminia, on the west are the new excavations of the thermal baths. Continue north and on your right is the 11th century church of San Damiano which was originally built on the foundations of a Roman building in paleo-Christian times. (Photos top next page) Volume 6, Issue 4, December 2011 Page 3 On the west side are the Twin Temples which were faced in pink limestone slabs. They are on a raised podium in the forum and were probably dedicated to the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, the healing twins, perhaps associated with the mineral springs . A partially- reconstructed flight of stone stairs lead up to the temples. (Photo below of view of temples with stairs) Looking southwest from the temples there is a cistern which today is rebuilt as a storage for antiquities with several inscribed monumental stones outside it. (Photo opposite) The wall here shows a good example of Opus Mixtum a combina- tion of Opus Testaceum (a concrete wall with horizon- tally faced bricks) and Opus Reticulatum (a netlike ar- rangement of small, diamond-shaped tufa stones, em- bedded in concrete walls and aligned diagonally –see photo of theatre below). These were common in central Italy in the 1st century BC to 1st century AD. The forum, which was the centre of the town was originally entered from the east through two arches; only one reconstructed arch is now standing next to the temples, with a lovely view through the arch to the amphitheatre and hills beyond. In the forum you can still see the raised decorative pavement with several buildings in- cluding the curia, the seat of the senate and municipal government and tabernae (market stalls). Page 4 The RAG Forum with curia Arch entrance to Forum with amphitheatre in background The Via Decumanus which runs east-west across the Via Flaminia leads to the 1st century AD (probably Flavian period) theatre (photo directly below) which was built of layers of limestone blocks and bricks in a natural cavity. Vomitorium from amphitheatre at Carsulae The photo immediately above left of page shows the vomitorium (a passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre and through which big crowds can rapidly exit) at Carsulae. The Augustan theatre (photo opposite) which lies immediately behind (and east of) the amphitheatre, has a classical configuration with a scaena (building behind the stage), pul- pitum (part of stage used by actors), and semi-circular or- chestra (space between audience and stage). The cavea (auditorium) is supported by 15 vaulted rooms. Note Opus Reticulatum facing Volume 6, Issue 4, December 2011 Page 5 San Damiano‘s Arch (also known as Arco di Traiano) is 220 m north of the forum (photo above). It was built in the Augustan period and originally consisted of three marble-clad arches. Only the central arch now stands. And just through San Damiano‘s Arch, in the city necropolis, there is a huge monumental tomb (photo above) consisting of a square base supporting a cylindrical core, possibly belonging to the Gens Furia (according to an inscription) dating from 2nd half of the first century AD. Just further on in the necropolis, a buried travertine sarcophagus was discovered during recent excavations (photo below right of page). It contained a lead coffin (photo below) which is now in the Carsulae museum.

Load more